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Stefano Hatfield

Stefano Hatfield

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Getting a stent fitted is nothing to worry about – though it brought me to tears

I am writing this from another bed this week: at a friend’s house in Cornwall, happy to have woken up to the miserable damp, grey skies. Because I...

22.07.2024 20

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Stefano Hatfield

Men, please don’t make the mistake I did before my recent heart attack

I’m writing this from a bed in the coronary care unit of a major west London hospital. I’ve woken up in trepidation, but without pain or tightness...

15.07.2024 5

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Stefano Hatfield

Anti-tourist protests in Barcelona stink of hypocrisy and snobbery

The great American writer Paul Theroux once said: “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been; travellers don’t know where they’re going.”...

07.07.2024 3

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Stefano Hatfield

If you don't like Coldplay, the joke's on you

Who did not shed a tear when the world’s most – allegedly – uncool rock superstar, Chris Martin, brought out his “hero” Michael J Fox for...

30.06.2024 9

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Stefano Hatfield

Millennials need to pull their socks up – quite literally

During our one week of sunshine – in desperation to contemplate anything other than an endless parade of pernicious politicians and failing...

23.06.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

I teach in a private school but don't think they should exist

Full disclosure: having started my teaching career in two challenging state schools, I now work in a private day school. I also put both of my...

17.06.2024 9

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Stefano Hatfield

Four huge waste bins? Our approach to recycling is rubbish

This is going to be a rubbish column – a dad joke for you to introduce the pungent subject of recycling bins. It’s a reminder that the 4 July...

09.06.2024 4

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Stefano Hatfield

Good grammar will soon become a skill of the elite

The genteel Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate is more often in the news as one of the happiest places in the UK to live. However, this past week it...

12.05.2024 30

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Stefano Hatfield

Axing Now Teach suggests this Government's stupidity has no limits

Imagine you are the Government and you have an unprecedented teacher recruitment crisis, with the numbers signed up for this academic year almost 50...

05.05.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

Sick note Britain? Hardly – most of us can't afford to take a sickie

Our Prime Minister recently launched a cynical attack on Britain’s “sick note” culture. But lived experience appears to be at odds with his...

29.04.2024 20

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Stefano Hatfield

A 12-hour school day won’t solve the problem of smartphones

At school this week, I set a standard creative writing challenge. It was a “show, don’t tell” descriptive writing exercise. My year 10s (14- to...

21.04.2024 20

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Stefano Hatfield

We don't need Liz Truss's book when our bills still show the consequences

The definition of chutzpah is “extreme self-confidence or audacity”. Helpfully, dictionaries often include an exemplar alongside definitions to...

14.04.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

No theatre can justify £275 for a ticket

Since becoming an English teacher and no longer working late evenings as an editor, I’ve been able to reconnect with my great love of live...

07.04.2024 9

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Stefano Hatfield

The state of Britain's rivers are a national shame after the Boat Race

The venerable 195-year-old Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race constitutes an unlikely addition to Broken Britain’s 2024 list of shame. I am not highlighting...

31.03.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

I can’t be ill any more without being accused of having ‘man flu’

I have “the 100-day cough”. I’m hoping the “100-day” bit is a media construct and it won’t last that long, but the cough bit has persisted...

24.03.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

Charlie from Casualty should have quit much sooner - jobs for life are sad

The actor Derek Thompson’s departure from the BBC soap Casualty this weekend was truly shocking. Not because his character, Charlie Fairhead, diced...

17.03.2024 7

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Stefano Hatfield

Age is just a number. But not when it comes to Biden, Trump and Murdoch

Since January, I’ve been hobbling around – despite orthotics, lifts and trendy, cushioned Hoka trainers – suffering from Achilles tendonitis....

10.03.2024 5

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Stefano Hatfield

What I learnt about tax from a conversation with a Fulham fan

When Benjamin Franklin remarked that, “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, the great American statesman...

03.03.2024 4

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Stefano Hatfield

I have been knocked sideways by the death of a teacher who inspired me

In words not often written: I shed a little tear this week at a message from someone wishing to connect with me on LinkedIn. Laura, the daughter of a...

26.02.2024 6

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Stefano Hatfield

My advice for the English National Opera performers, made redundant mid-performance

Have you ever been made redundant? Or made anyone redundant? The chances are that you will not have given or received notice mid-way through a task...

18.02.2024 7

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Stefano Hatfield

Gregg Wallace’s blunder is a lesson for us all

Poor Gregg Wallace: three words not often written in sequence. They are oxymoronic, not only because the Masterchef judge has been a well-remunerated...

11.02.2024 20

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Stefano Hatfield

Gillian Keegan’s teacher apprenticeships ignores the elephant in the room

How many of you know a SCITT from a PGCE, an NQT from an ECT, a TA from someone with QTS? Unless you work in education, few readers will know these...

04.02.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

I've done Dry January for 29 years - pubs will have to change or die

It’s been the driest of Januaries for struggling pubs, according to reports today. As I come to the end of my 29th year of not drinking alcohol in...

28.01.2024 30

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Stefano Hatfield

Katharine Birbalsingh just says what many teachers are thinking

Katharine Birbalsingh, self-styled “strictest head teacher in Britain”, is one of the great polarisers in British society. It is almost impossible...

21.01.2024 10

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Stefano Hatfield

Customer service is surely designed to irritate – it must be

Why has the brilliant ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office struck such a deep nerve? It is ITV’s most-watched drama in a decade but this isn’t...

15.01.2024 30

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Stefano Hatfield

Joey Barton's public meltdown is being enabled by platforms like X

In one short week, the controversial former footballer and manager, Joey Barton, has gone from ranting against female pundits to placing football at...

07.01.2024 5

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Stefano Hatfield

Gillian Keegan and Steve Barclay, I have new year's resolutions for you

I was going to rage against the corrupt and corrosive honours system that allows the bumbling likes of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to hand out baubles...

01.01.2024 8

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Stefano Hatfield

Carers are the unsung heroes of the holidays – this is how we can thank them

A year ago, my 91-year-old Ma died after a terrible weekend ina south London hospital. This is not the place to explore that horrendous last 72 hours...

26.12.2023 3

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Stefano Hatfield

Remember the name – Rebecca Welch

If you do not recognise the name Rebecca Welch, then by this weekend it should be impossible not to know who she is. Welch will become the first...

18.12.2023 3

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Stefano Hatfield

Boris Johnson wearing the Grimsby FC hat raises an important question

My teacher friend, a Grimsby Town supporter, was incandescent. For the second time in a year his hometown club was in the news. Back in January, it...

10.12.2023 7

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Stefano Hatfield

Teachers like me are walking a dangerous tightrope in Israel-Hamas discussions

The question that did not bode well for the article that my Year 7 pupil was proposing for the school magazine: “Sir, can I write an article about...

04.12.2023 10

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Stefano Hatfield

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